The outrunners of the party led the way while Ryan and Tammy proceeded at their rear. Thus, by the time that the one-eyed man and the Gate warrior had reached the camp, Gloria had already heard the bare bones of a report, and so was waiting for them to explain themselves.
When they entered the camp, they were both aware of the change in atmosphere, and Tammy muttered to Ryan, “I reckon you were right, thinking about it, but Glo’s gonna be steamin’ at this, and you’ll have to talk fast to calm her down.”
Ryan didn’t speak, but acknowledged this with a brief nod. He could see the Gate queen coming toward them across the camp, and her flaming red hair seemed to be matched only by her temper.
“What the fuck is going on, eh?” she said without preamble as she approached.
“You’ve had a report, then?” Tammy spoke quietly, trying to communicate an air of calm to her queen.
It wasn’t working.
“Too right, I’ve had a fucking report, lady, and I want to know why you let those triple-bastard scum spread the disease further. We could have that, missy—”
“So you’ve been talking to Mildred,” Ryan interjected as calmly as possible.
Gloria assented. “That I have, sweetie, and it’s a good thing I did, right? Because otherwise I wouldn’t have known. You weren’t going to tell me, were you, Ryan?”
“But if you’ve been talking to Mildred, then you’ll know that she thinks—”
“I know what she thinks, but she could have told me that, as well. Mebbe we have got some kind of immunity, and mebbe that makes us just right for taking these bastards on.” Her tone changed slightly, becoming less agitated as she continued. “Mebbe that’s what our destiny is all about, and that’s how we attain our goal. Did you not think of that, Ryan Cawdor?”
“Yeah, I did,” Ryan said firmly. He could see Gloria had the faraway look of a queen in her eyes, focusing on the destiny and legend of her tribe. He wanted to bring her back to the present, and reality. Adjusting his tone so that it was softer, he continued. “Gloria, if I had let Mildred tell you that she thought you’d been infected and proved immune, then you would have taken it as this omen, and wanted to take on the redoubt that very night. We can’t do that. We have to find a way to get past their defense to make sure we hit them quick and hard, getting all the advantage we can out of surprise. They hold all the cards in there. Look at how they were able to force you out without even having the guts for a fight. Who’s to say that they wouldn’t be able to do that if we didn’t have some kind of plan?”
“Who’s to say that they won’t do that anyway?” Gloria replied. “Even if we get in, how do we insure that—?”
“We can’t,” Ryan cut in brusquely. “I know that just like you. But we have to load the odds on our side as much as possible.”
“He’s right,” Tammy chipped in. “It’s like weighted dice, right? And only we know about it. They don’t—that means that we can hit them hard and where it really hurts. Y’know, I fucking hated leaving those poor bastards to die out there, but Ryan was right. Mebbe those scum fuckers don’t know we’re here, mebbe they do. They mebbe think we’ve moved on. But I tell you what, Glo—they sure as shit don’t know that Ryan and his people are here. And that’s where we’ve got a handful of aces when it comes to a firefight.”
The flame-haired Gate queen pursed her lips. She wasn’t used to Tammy speaking to her in such a manner, and the very fact that her second in command was prepared to sound off in such a fashion made her stop and think.
“Look, mebbe you’re right,” she said grudgingly, “but if what these bastards want is to wipe out the whole population and then come up and take over whatever the fuck is left, then we’ve got to stamp them out as soon as possible. Otherwise it’ll be too late.”